Malmedy massacre

The Malmedy massacre was a war crime in which 84 American prisoners of war were massacred by their German SS guards at the town of Malmedy, Belgium on 17 December 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge. Joachim Peiper's kampfgruppe of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler was responsible for the atrocity, and the frozen bodies of the US soldiers were found by American troops when they retook the town on 14 January 1945. Further massacres of prisoners-of-war occurred at Stavelot, Cheneux, La Gleize, and Stoumont, and Peiper's men were also responsible for killing 100 Belgian civilians at Stavelot. He was murdered several years after the war in retaliation for his war crimes.